A Diverse Approach To Animal Adoption

It is so lovely now the weather has warmed up. People are smiling, children are making sand castles and grown ups wait patiently in line to buy ice cream.

We trot off to the far end of the beach. “It is safer here for you to run and play, away from the families with small children,” says Seamus. “And we are not allowed to pee on the sand castles, even though they look as if they were made for it.”

We love to walk in the quiet part of the beach. The people and dogs we meet here have to make an effort to come this far out.

A man in jeans and a brown shirt appears from the dunes with a large dog on the lead and a worried frown on his face. I can sense the energy in the man tense up when he sees us walking along the shore. Seamus, Pearl and I have no intention to walk over and greet them. Everything about them tells us to keep our distance.

Our companion puts us on the lead to reassure the man and his dog. The man relaxes his shoulders and gives us a wave and a nod. Our companion waves back. When we have walked a little further she lets us go again.

Up ahead are two wire-haired dogs playing in the water. Pearl and I run across to greet them with wagging tails and the four of us run a few big circles on the sand.

“What lovely dogs,” says our companion. “What kind of dogs are they?”

“They are both former street dogs from Hungary,” says the young woman. “My husband and I wanted our children to grow up with rescue dogs and teach them how rewarding it is to adopt a dog from a shelter. The charities around here turned us down for adoption because we have two small children and we ended up adopting from a Hungarian rescue organisation.”

“What a wonderful thing to raise your children in this way and help two abandoned dogs,” says our companion. “Did you meet the dogs before you adopted them?”

“No, that was the only disadvantage. But the staff and volunteers were very good and told us exactly what kind of dogs would be good with young children. They were absolutely right.”

Pearl and I run up to the woman and Seamus touches her hand with his nose before going back in the water.

“You are all lovely dogs too,” says the woman, stroking our heads. “I bet you are happy to have landed on your paws.”

I look into her eyes and see a beautiful soul.

I feel sad that this young woman was turned down by the local shelters. I am grateful that she did not give up. She did not protest, she did not fight, she simply followed another route to animal adoption and has offered a loving home to two dogs in need.

These dogs were starving on the streets of Hungary and now they are running on a beach in the Highlands, looking healthy and happy.

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Author: whippetwisdom

The stories, poems and photographs on this blog are the original creative work of Xenia Tran. Inspired by life in the Scottish Highlands and in awe of nature she gives voice to the wisdom of her two rescue whippets Eivor and Pearl.
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Yes Eivor, us humans frown upon you peeing on the little human’s sand castles, even if they do look like that is what they are made for. LOL Glad you and your friends are able to find a place on the beach away from the crowds where you can run free and enjoy the great outdoors.